Victory Cake,Blowing the Horn of Victory

Victory Cake(Din gsheng Cake for Chinese characters)is a snack popular in regions south of Yangtze River,which has boen the gift for celebrating friends’moving into new houses, birthdays and othe r jubilant days and holidays.The cake was called Victory Cake not only for its meaning of the good omen that”Victory is certain”,but also for its shape similar to that of”tenon”.That’s the reason why Victory Cake was firstly called”Tenon Cake”.

Speaking of it,there is a story about bravery and wisdom.It was said that in the year of Jianyan in Song Dynasty,Jin Wushu invaded Lin’an,was to be defeated by the army and people of Hangzhou.Jin had to retreat to Pingjiang and invaded Suzhou.At that time,a prestigious army leader Han Shizhong was on garrison dlong Songjiang.On hearing that the army of Jin was withdrawing to the North,he ambushed his army around Taihu Lake to cut the back of Jin.Be informed of Han Shizhong’s deployment,Jin brought relief troops to fight against Han.

Brave as they were,Han’s army couldn’t win the battle when faced up with ten thousand enemies.Han Shizhong racked his brain about beating Jin day and Might without enough time to eat or rest.He became weak and fragile.Late at One night,Han’s wife brought him some dessert and said,”General,the locals gave several baskets of dessert to encourage our soldiers and this was prepared for you Out of their respect.”Han picked up the dessert curiously and found the dessert very Special.The two ends were much bigger than the middle,just like a tenon.

He tore a piece of the dessert and found a note in it.It said”the enemy camps are just like a tenon,the two ends were well-guarded but the middle not.If you attack the weak middle,the two ends couldn’t help.”In fact,the locals had acquired the enemies’situation for General Han because they were afraid that Han might break down.Encouraged by this,Han Shizhong deployed his army to attack the enemies’ camps and gained a complete victory.

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